By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
American Sign Language courses will continue to be offered at Bowling Green State University.
This marks a reversal of a plan to end the sequence of courses.
Provost Joe Whitehead told Faculty Senate that the university has made a commitment to offer the courses.
The minor, however, will not be revived. The minor had been approved last spring, but no students had enrolled before the program was suspended, though some had expressed interest.
The administration had said the ASL courses were being discontinued because of budget issues in the College of Education and Human Development. Whitehead said that the focus on the college needed to be on providing courses that its students needed to graduate, and that did not included ASL.
In response to a query from BG Independent, Whitehead reported that “ the Provost’s Office is working to centrally cover the cost of delivering the American Sign Language courses.”
During the meeting, Whitehead said his conversations with students show a clear preference for in-person classes.
Last month, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution to maintain the course sequence and the minor, and for the university to fully fund them.
The courses had an enrollment of 400 students with students from several colleges especially Arts and Sciences, where they served to meet the foreign language classes and Health and Human Services.
Proponents of the ASL program also argued it was an important connection to the area deaf community and educated students about the need for inclusion and access.
